SYNOPSIS
This is the fourth album from The X Factor veteran, who recently left the Simon Cowell stable and is now putting herself back on the map with this diva-esque album.
INTRODUCTION
Many of the tracks on this album focus on the idea of being a ‘survivor’. This session, and the track used, takes a different line: that someone else truly recues us from the depths.
THE SESSION
To help set the scene for this session, focus on the theme of survival, perhaps playing other tracks from the album, and decorating the room appropriately with camouflage nets or posters of ‘survival experts’.
Begin the session with some physical activities relating to the theme of survival, perhaps setting a challenging obstacle course for the young people to tackle or asking one of your leaders to teach some basic survival skills, outdoors where possible.
Explain to your group that a lot of attention is paid by the media to those who have a survival story to tell. Talent shows all seem to focus on entrants who come with a story of hardship or difficulty, where they are celebrated for single-handedly overcoming a difficult past. This can put a lot of pressure on us, as individuals, to feel that we also need to overcome the obstacles we face completely independently, but we are not created to operate in that way.
TRACK 5: LADDERS
Play the track and provide copies of the lyrics for your young people. Explain to your group that the lyrics of this song acknowledge the role of another person in helping the singer out of the low situation in which she found herself.
Ask your young people to consider their own stories. Can they identify a point in time where they found themselves down ‘in the trenches’? Can they recall who helped them out of that place? How were they helped? Is this something they need help with now?
Distribute Bibles and ask your young people to look at Psalm 40:1–3. Talk about how the words of this Psalm are reflected in the lyrics of the song. How does God lift the psalmist out of the pit?
Invite one of your leaders to share their own short testimony of how they have experienced God’s help in lifting them out of a difficult situation. They may wish to talk about how God involved other people in this, or how God rescuing us can be different from other people helping us out of a tricky situation.
As you close the session, give each of your young people a smooth stone to take away with them as a reminder that God can set our feet on solid rock, whatever difficult situations we find ourselves in. Pray for your young people, and encourage them to remember that whatever difficulty they encounter they can ask for help. We do not need to survive on our own.
